Chief Imam of All India Imam organisation wants cow to be declared India’s national animal

Umer Ahmed Ilyasi the Chief Imam of the All India Imam organisation on Wednesday called for the cow to be declared as India’s national animal. He made the statement during a religious gathering named Shashtipurti Mahotsav in Ahmadabad.

He was quoted as saying that a message should be sent to the government regarding the same and his statement as a result got a standing ovation from the people at the event who had attended it in the thousands. He at the event also reported told an anecdote about a Jain family once being neighbours with a Muslim family who then used to leave their house for 10 days during Bakri Eid as the Muslim family used to sacrifice a goat on that day. He then claimed that when he came to know about it, he reasoned with the Muslim family and made them stop it.

Ilyasi has also previously been in the news for his pro-cow advocacy. At the start of this month he reportedly demanded a nationwide ban on cow slaughter. He at that time had also stated that there was nothing wrong in chanting “Jai Sri Ram” as it was acclamation of his victory. This was in response to the whole controversy which had erupted when the Bihar Minority Affairs Minister Khurshid Alam had chanted the same.

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Also this is not the only time cow and national animal have been uttered in the same breath. A couple of months back Mahesh Chandra Sharma the Rajasthan High Court judge who famously had claimed that peacocks don’t have sex, had recommended that the cow be declared India’s national animal. He had further suggested that those found guilty of cow slaughter should be sentenced to life imprisonment. These comments of his had come while he was hearing a matter of hundreds of cows perishing in a government run cowshed.

Times Now's tweets reflect the general attitude of the Indian elite towards Hindu festivals. While everything negative is associated with Hindu festivals, an aura of celebratory mood is spread on the occasion of Abrahamic festivals.